Look, football gods. Quick word. The way the kids on the Grading The Week crew see it, you stinking owe us. You owe us big time. Remember Bo Nix in January? Heck, remember Jarrett Stidham in January? Coach Prime ain’t the only one who keeps receipts around here.

So here’s what we’re asking for, plain and simple. It’s to have Drew Lock leading the Seattle offense at Empower Field when the Seahawks visit the Broncos on Oct. 15.

Drew vs. Bo. Lock vs. Nix. John Elway’s franchise QB of 2019 vs. Sean Payton’s franchise QB of 2024.

Let the Drewthers have their moment. Let’s see if their guy can finally back up their years of love, affection and I-told-you-so finger wags against a Super Bowl-caliber defense in prime time.

Based on this past Wednesday night, No. 2 in green, but No. 1 in some Denver hearts, still has some tiger in his tank at age 29.

Drew Lock does what Stidham couldn’t — B

Forced into the starting lineup by QB1 Sam Darnold’s hip injury in the first quarter of a Week 1 Super Bowl rematch against New England, our guy Paul Andrew Lock started slow but rallied the hosts to a 13-10 victory that kicked off the 2026 NFL slate.

Lock, drafted out of Missouri with a second-round selection by the Broncos seven years ago, wound up completing 16 of 22 passes in relief of Darnold for 187 yards and a score. The ex-Tiger led Seattle to points on two of his last three drives, including a 45-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that set up the game-tying extra point about four minutes into the fourth quarter. Lock followed that up with an eight-play, 39-yard jaunt to set up what turned out to be a winning field goal from 26 yards out with 5:50 left in the contest.

Now our man Paul Andrew wasn’t the star of the night — that honor, no shock, belonged to Seattle’s defense, which picked Patriots QB Drake Maye off three times, including once in the end zone with 26 seconds left to seal New England’s fate.

But on a franchise that leads with its D, that believes in punting to win, that only needs game managers to pull out ugly, grindy victories, Lock managed to keep his younger riverboat-gambler tendencies in check.

Which, in hindsight, was a far cry from that wild colt the Broncos drafted out of CoMo. Lock made 21 starts as Denver’s QB1 from 2019-21 before being shipped off to Seattle as part of the Russell Wilson deal/debacle in 2022. And the prevailing GTW memory of young Drew, besides his dancing memes, was of a raw, baby-faced signal-caller whose big arm wrote checks his head wasn’t ready to cash.

As a Bronco, he put up a record of 8-13 as a starter and posted a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 25-20 in 24 appearances, streaky as holy heck, scores and picks landing in equally breathtaking bunches. He was asked to keep up with peak Mahomes and peak Kelce. And couldn’t. He was asked to beat the Raiders. Didn’t do that, either. When he needed a Payton and Davis Webb to teach him the NFL ropes, he got Vic Fangio and Pat Shurmur instead. He probably envies Nix more than a little on that front, and could you blame him?

The Drewthers are never wrong, which is annoying, and the GTW crew, to a soul, remain ride-or-die with circa 2021 Teddy Bridgewater. But we’ll concede to the Lock-stans on this front — pressed into emergency service at home on a huge, national stage against the Patriots, Lock did what Steady Stiddy couldn’t. Win.

Although the team is likely to sit him out for a Week 2 visit to Arizona as a precaution — and, also, well, because it’s Arizona. Broncos-Seahawks isn’t until Week 6, so take your time, Sam. Seriously. The NFL script-writers owe us that much.

Condon raking, just not at Coors — D

We get it: Keeping Rockies uber-prospect Charlie Condon down on the farm in Albuquerque this month keeps him off the 40-man roster and also prevents him from being locked out in 2027, when baseball inevitably closes all doors during a nuclear winter/spring following the expiration of the current CBA in December. But man, if the kid isn’t mad about not getting called up this month, he’s sure as heck taking it out on what pitching is left in the Pacific Coast League. From Sep. 3-10, the former first-round pick out of Georgia hit .357 with three home runs and 11 RBI in seven appearances. If you ask the baseball sickos in the GTW offices, The Condon Clock can’t start soon enough.

John Elway will make his “Manningcast” debut for the Broncos-Chiefs game, joining fellow Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. Brother Eli, who remains a candidate for Canton, will be there, too.

But Elway’s first appearance will draw in ����apountry for what Elway and Manning have to say. Both have an intimate knowledge of the Broncos. When it comes to the team’s history, there is Elway and everyone else.

He guided the Broncos to five Super Bowls, winning the franchise’s first two in the 1997 and 1998 seasons behind a star-studded offense that included future Hall of Famers Gary Zimmerman, Shannon Sharpe and Terrell Davis.

With the help of an historically great defense, Manning engineered the Broncos’ last title, taming the Carolina Panthers, 24-10.

The current Broncos open the season with championship expectations, making Elway’s appearance well-timed and even more fascinating.

The “Manningcast” began in 2021, the same year Elway transitioned from head of the Broncos football operations to a consulting role. His last day in that position was March 15, 2023.

While Elway has been removed from the Broncos, he has not been far away. He has long had a good friendship with coach Sean Payton, through many golf outings, leaving him tethered and mindful of the Broncos’ results.

There will likely be questions about Bo Nix. Following Manning’s retirement, Elway struggled to keep the Broncos in contention because a carousel of quarterbacks — from Trevor Siemian to Case Keenum and Joe Flacco — failed to pan out.

Nix represents the 13th starter since Manning, and two playoff berths in his first two seasons have cast him as a long-term solution.

Elway’s thoughts on Nix and the Broncos should make for interesting listening. There should be some barbs as well. Elway and the Mannings have a history of one-liners, and it would be a disappointment if they didn’t rib each other.

Elway is the third former or current Broncos player to appear on the “Manningcast,” joining Sharpe and Russell Wilson.

Former Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak wanted Joseph, then the Bengals’ defensive backs coach, to be his defensive coordinator in Denver in 2015. Then-Denver general manager John Elway put in a slip to interview Joseph. Longtime Bengals head coach Lewis wanted Joseph to advance. But someone — as Lewis tells it — wandered upstairs to convince Bengals owner Mike Brown that Joseph was valuable enough to keep, and Lewis tried to convince Brown to no avail, and the Bengals blocked Joseph from leaving.

So a year later, Joseph left Cincinnati “because he was upset,” as Lewis said, to take the Dolphins’ defensive coordinator job. Another year later, Joseph landed the top job in Denver on the heels of Kubiak’s retirement and at the beginning of a transitional era.

The what-if, from Cincinnati’s 2015 blockade, is significant. Lewis was asked: If Joseph had already been immersed in Denver’s building for the two years before he succeeded Kubiak, would things have gone differently?

“It’s probably,” Lewis affirmed, “a really different outcome.”

Instead, the Broncos went 5-11 and 6-10 in two years before firing Joseph, sending him spiraling back down the rungs of an arbitrary NFL coaching ladder that is remarkably difficult to climb back up. The journey, since, has taken him back to Denver as a coordinator, in a remarkably humble move for a fired head coach — “no fear,” as Cowboys DC Christian Parker put it — only for the NFL to pass him up with each passing coaching cycle.

After he put together two straight seasons of top-three defenses in Denver, 10 head-coaching jobs came free this past NFL cycle. Five teams requested to interview Joseph. None of them chose to hire him.

As Joseph has built his resume, peers across the league point directly to him amid a troubling demographic trend across the NFL: it’s empirically difficult for Black coaches to earn a head-coaching job, and even more difficult to earn a second job.

“The success he’s had the last couple years in Denver, having the defense like he’s had, and building the credibility, credentials that he’s had — not to get a shot or another shot, is unbelievable to me,” Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles told reporters at the NFL owners’ meetings in March. “So, something has to be fixed.”

Joseph declined to be interviewed for this story, and had no hand in supporting it. In June, he told reporters it was “OK” he didn’t get a head-coaching job this past cycle.

“My focus now is to get back in position, and that’s winning games for the Broncos and being a great defense again,” Joseph said then. “It’s a process that is different every single year. I can’t be concerned about the outcomes. Just keep pushing forward, winning games and being in position to interview.”

Coaches close to Joseph have told The Post he remains undeterred. Some speak with near-outrage on a hiring system that — since 2018 — has excluded him.

“I’m not an owner, not a general manager,” Seahawks assistant head coach Leslie Frazier told The Post at February’s Super Bowl week in San Francisco. “But how does that happen? I just don’t get it. His resume should speak for itself. Disappointed. I hope that things will change.

“But when there are 10 jobs, and there’s not one Black coach who anyone feels is qualified or capable of leading their team — just makes me scratch my head. It����ap just disappointing.”

—

There are several plain and possible contributing factors across the NFL for Joseph’s extended and incomplete climb back to a head-coaching chair. Cleveland’s Todd Monken, for one, is the only head coach (60) hired this cycle who is older than Joseph and hasn’t won a Super Bowl as a head coach. Franchises, too, have increasingly shifted in recent years toward targeting young offensive play-callers in the Sean McVay mold, as one prominent NFL coaching agent told The Post. And, of course, Joseph doesn’t have a long string of head-coaching victories as a second-chance hire.

The league’s static progress in head-coaching diversity, though — just three Black head coaches are set to helm NFL teams in 2026 — is hard for many to ignore.

“There’s not many of them anywhere,” said former Browns head coach Hue Jackson. “And the numbers get worse. The numbers are as bad as it����ap ever been, now.”

There is a stark historical disparity, too, in the time between second chances for Black and white head coaches. According to coaching data collected and analyzed by The Denver Post, there have been nine Black head coaches and 29 white head coaches who coached in the 2000s, were fired from a head-coaching job and rehired by a different organization.

The average number of seasons between top jobs for Black coaches is 4.2, compared to 2.7 for white coaches.

This known disparity in falling back down the ladder, Jackson believes, can influence decisions to even approach head-coaching jobs

“I think a lot of guys that I know — are personally afraid to do it,” said Jackson, who hasn’t been an NFL head coach since a 3-36-1 tenure with the Browns from 2016 to 2018. “Because you have success, and you get this opportunity, and let����ap say you get it. Where do you go when it����ap over?”

“I think people have had an opportunity to see firsthand that if you do step out there and take that chance,” he continued later, “this is what could happen to you.”

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’s discrimination suit against the NFL, filed in February 2022, has ignited years of debate about the role of race in the league’s hiring practices. So has examination of the league’s long-standing “Rooney Rule,” . But key to this conversation, as several former Black head coaches spoke with The Post about, is the difficulty of Black coaches not only getting hired but also being rehired.

“In this business, they want to know, did you win or did you lose?” former Browns and Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel told The Post. “And if you win, generally, you get a chance to stay. If you lose, now then – that becomes part of your resume, that you are a losing head coach. And so, when these people start looking for coaches, they aren’t crazy about hiring a black coach that����ap a losing coach.

“And so, that makes it tougher for a black coach to get rehired.”

—

Joseph began his football career as an option quarterback at the University of Colorado, where he overlapped with current Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy for a year. Both were members of Colorado’s chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and Bieniemy — who is still close friends with Joseph — said both still live by an old fraternity motto: “Humility With Dignity.”

“He’s an outstanding communicator, and he’s one of the top damn NFL defensive coordinators in this business right now,” Bieniemy told The Post of Joseph in July. “And he deserves a shot.”

Joseph’s head-coaching stint in Denver remains a stain, overseeing two years of sluggish Broncos offenses that fielded four different starting quarterbacks. But those in the building from that era, still, take up for Joseph. The franchise’s fatal flaw in those 2017 and 2018 seasons, as former Broncos defensive coordinator Joe Woods indicated — now the Raiders’ defensive-passing game coordinator — was not aligning expectations with an objective assessment of the roster’s talent.

Kubiak was gone, after a 9-7 slip in 2016 from 2015’s Super Bowl title. Peyton Manning was a year retired, and the Broncos had already whiffed on 2016 first-round QB Paxton Lynch. Pro Bowl staples like Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders were entering the twilight of their careers, and Denver’s vaunted “No-Fly Zone” secondary was losing altitude.

“Probably one of the main things from Denver that (Joseph) learned is that, just from an organizational standpoint, that everybody has to be on the same path in terms of what the outlook is,” Woods said. “When we were there, we were coming off, ‘Hey, we were just in the Super Bowl in ‘15, we’re a couple pieces away.’ But I think really, at that time, we weren’t.”

The 2017 Broncos started 3-1 under Joseph and finished 2-10, starting three different quarterbacks. Veteran Case Keenum wasn’t the answer at quarterback a year later.

And still, former Denver tight end Virgil Green calls Joseph a “football wizard,” and ex-Broncos great Von Miller said Joseph did “the best job he could do” with the tools at his disposal.

“It was a hangover there,” Broncos great Von Miller told The Post this spring. “It had nothing to do with VJ’s coaching, or perspective. We, as far as recruiting, we had a hangover there. We were behind the ball as far as scouting, and getting guys in there that really could change, like, the organization. And we had missed that whole mark for that whole time VJ was there, and then leading up to VJ getting there. So VJ, he really didn’t have much to work with.

“VJ did an incredible job, as far as his managing of the team,” Miller continued. “His managing of the offense, of the defense, our schemes. We won some games that we should not have won, with the team that we had. We had trouble at the quarterback position. We had trouble everywhere. We didn’t have the No-Fly Zone. It was all types of things that were happening, and VJ managed it well.”

And Joseph, as Lewis told The Post, has been able to watch Denver’s roster-building strategy under Sean Payton and understand the need to build around a quarterback.

“You give him Peyton Manning,” Miller said, recounting Joseph’s head-coaching years, “we’re going to the Super Bowl. You give him a Josh Allen, you give him one of these great quarterbacks, we’re going to the Super Bowl.”

In Denver, now, players almost universally praise Joseph’s ability to relay complex, aggressive defensive schemes. His units have produced two straight seasons of franchise sack records, largely due to creative packages that use inside linebackers and nickel blitzes. And he stepped in seamlessly for Payton for two days this camp, when Denver’s head coach flew to Canton, Ohio, for Drew Brees’ Hall of Fame induction.

At one point during Joseph’s brief time in charge, nickel cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian went up to Joseph and told him: “Head coach looks good on you.”

“He’s a leader of men – like, he checks every single box,” All-Pro defensive lineman Zach Allen told The Post at the Pro Bowl in San Francisco in February. “I don’t know what the teams are looking for. But for us, it����ap good news. So we’ll take it.”

When will another team take Joseph, though? Most everyone in Denver’s building and Joseph’s orbit — and Joseph himself — remain expressively optimistic he’ll get a second chance. But luck in the NFL is fickle, and proven leadership hasn’t worked on its own accord.

Lewis laid out a hypothetical situation in which injuries befall the Broncos’ offense in 2026, the wins stop coming, and Joseph’s overall defensive impact from two previous seasons is lost in the weeds.

“That is my worry,” Lewis said. “That, really, is my worry.”

Joseph will walk into another head-coaching cycle, now, only able to control a handful of factors in front of him. But those who know him ultimately present the image of a man who will control those factors as well as anyone in his profession.

“Was Vance ready?” Kubiak said, asked if Joseph was ready in 2017. “Yeah, Vance is ready. I mean, he’s been ready for a long time.”

The competition was fierce. We looked for those who had roots in Colorado that went beyond living here just a few months, had a profound impact on this state’s culture and history, helping the Centennial State become what it is today.

Some on the list are people whose achievements were of national, international or interstellar significance, so their inclusion is warranted even if their direct influence in Colorado was less marked.

We did not include notorious people. Just being famous, even very famous, wasn’t enough to earn a spot on the list. People are flawed, and some on this list were both deeply flawed and greatly influential. We weighed this in deciding whether or not to include them.

We sought to cover a broad array of fields. And sometimes we put two people in one entry because the accomplishment of one could not be separated from the other.

The Post hopes you enjoy our list!

Madeleine Albright

As the first female secretary of state, Albright internationally. The Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver is named for her father, Josef Korbel, who was also a diplomat.

Elias M. Ammons

Rancher and founder of the Colorado Cattle and Horse Grower’s Association, and one of the in 1906. As governor, beginning in 1912, he initiated a state parks system.

Susan Anderson

One of the first women to practice medicine in Colorado, she to the residents of Fraser, whom she tended to as the only physician in town for 49 years. (Some claim was based on her life.)

Philip Anschutz

An entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, he has to the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is the founder of AEG and owns sports teams and sports venues.

Bill Armstrong

The former U.S. senator was a pillar of Colorado’s Republican Party and a force behind the conservative economic policies of Ronald Reagan. He’s viewed as pivotal in helping the party recover after Watergate.

Marilyn Van Derbur Atler

The , University of Colorado graduate and former Miss America founded two nonprofits dedicated to strengthening laws to protect adult survivors and child victims of abuse. She is the subject of the documentary chronicling the years of sexual abuse by her socially prominent father.

Philip Bailey

The Grammy-winning Denver East High School graduate made his name as a lead singer for Earth, Wind, and Fire. The band sold worldwide.

Thomas Bailey

Thomas Bailey (now Janus Henderson), one of the largest asset managers in Colorado. The Janus Foundation helps more than 140 national nonprofits by offering education to at-risk youths.

Ceal Barry

Barry worked 37 years at the University of Colorado. In 22 seasons as the head women’s basketball coach, her record was 427-242. As an associate and later deputy athletic director, she championed women’s sports.

Odell C. Barry

Barry started in Colorado as a record-breaking kick return specialist for the Denver Broncos. He quickly transitioned into a statesman, business owner, mentor and philanthropist. Barry served on the Northglenn City Council and was elected the first Black mayor of Northglenn in 1980. U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse called Barry “a giant in our community.”

William Bent

The fur trader developed a strong relationship with the Cheyenne and built Bent����ap Fort, now a National Historic Site. He bequeathed land along the Arkansas River, specifying that it should be granted to mixed-race settlers, .

Alan Berg

Member of the in the 1980s, the outspoken liberal, a Jew, by the white supremacist group The Order outside his Denver home in 1984 at age 50.

Chief Black Kettle

Member of the Cheyenne tribe that settled on the Eastern Plains in the 1830s, near La Junta. He was an during the 1860s Colorado War and before and after the Sand Creek Massacre along Big Sandy Creek in 1864.

Claude Boettcher

His father built the family fortune through various business interests, including hardware, sugar and cement. Claude Boettcher created the Boettcher Foundation in 1937.

Frederick Bonfils and Harry Tammen

The two purchased a failing newspaper in 1895 and renamed it the Denver Evening Post, predecessor of The Denver Post.

Helen Bonfils

Bonfils became president of The Denver Post when her father, founder Frederick G. Bonfils, died. the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Bonfils Memorial Theater (now Lowenstein Theater) and the Bonfils Blood Center.

Frank Bonanno

The restaurateur has been at the helm of in Colorado, including Mizuna, Luca, Osteria Marco, Green Russell and Denver Milk Market. He is also the creator of the eight-episode

Steve Bosley

Bosley, a University of Colorado graduate, served for 12 years on the CU Board of Regents and was the president and CEO of Independent Bank of Boulder for 24 years. Bosley is a co-founder of the Bolder Boulder 10k race, which helped put the city on the map as a running mecca.

Pat Bowlen

The former Broncos owner created a culture of winning and made himself the most successful sports team owner in Colorado history.

Stan Brakhage

Experimental filmmaker whose 300-plus works helped define the “language of American avant-garde cinema,” according to the . Taught Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts at for more than 20 years.

Antonia Brico

The conductor and pianist settled in Denver in 1942, where she founded a Bach Society and the Women’s String Ensemble. In 1948, Brico became (later the Denver Philharmonic). She taught piano to Judy Collins, who directed a movie about the musician in 1974.

Clara Brown

Born into slavery, she headed to Denver in search of a daughter who had been sold. They would not be reunited for many years. She formed a laundry business in Central City, made enough to invest in mining claims, and later  to Colorado using her own money to support the new communities.

Henry Brown

Brown arrived in Denver in 1860 and is linked to the city’s earliest development. He built the Brown Palace on his land and donated 10 acres for the state Capitol. Brown also is credited with establishing the Denver City Library.

Molly Brown

Before she was heralded as a hero of the Titanic for her efforts to help get survivors into lifeboats and raise money for them, Margaret Brown ran for the U.S. Senate and was a champion of women’s rights.

Norm Brownstein

He’s been given the moniker  “America’s 101st Senator” because of the influence he wields as founder and chairman of the law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck. Among his contributions was a major role in securing the

Doug Bruce

The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, is a fundamental element of how Colorado spends and taxes its residents. who served in the state House of Representatives.

Joy Burns

in Denver; chair of the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors’ Bureau; founder and director of the Women’s Bank, now called Colorado Business Bank; founder of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado; the first woman to chair the ; and president of the Sportswomen of Colorado Foundation.

William Byers

Byers founded the Rocky Mountain News, Denver’s first newspaper. He helped create the city’s first Chamber of Commerce and joined John Evans and Henry Brown in starting the Denver Tramway Company.

Patty Calhoun

Calhoun co-founded Westword magazine in 1977 (from which she is stepping down as editor this summer), a frequent panelist on “Colorado Inside Out,” and past president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Known for his advocacy of Native American issues, Campbell pushed to upgrade the Great Sand Dunes National Monument to a national park. He was a fiscal conservative who left the Democratic Party in 1995.

John Francis Campion

Campion arrived in Colorado in 1879 and made a He is remembered as a key figure in founding the Museum of Natural History, now Denver Museum of Nature & Science, but also donated money to build the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception.

Hendrika Bestebreurtje Cantwell

The pioneering pediatrician started the in Colorado to help abusive and neglectful parents. As the physician for Denver Social Services, she established a Family Services Center and helped increase public awareness of child abuse.

Scott Carpenter

The Boulder native was the and the second to orbit the Earth — ending in a frightening landing far from the target site. He helped develop underwater training to prepare for spacewalks.

Gov. Ralph Carr

Governor during World War II, he was an outspoken

Kit Carson

Carson moved to and negotiated a peace treaty with the Utes. The famed frontiersman, who also led campaigns against Native Americans, ended his career as superintendent of Indian affairs for the Colorado territory.

George Caulkins

Caulkins played a critical role in raising the money that created Vail. The Ellie Caulkins Opera House is named for his wife, a supporter of opera in Colorado.

Thomas Cech

The in chemistry in 1989 (along with Sidney Altman) discovered that RNA had the ability to “form stable, structured molecules – not just transient messengers,” according to Yale School of Medicine. He is a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado.

Walter S. Cheesman

The businessman, developed the real estate industry and, with his daughter, Gladys, planned his “grand mansion” along Eighth Avenue. It was built in 1908 and later became the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion in 1924.

Chin Lin Sou

Chin arrived in Black Hawk in 1871 when work on the transcontinental railroad ended. He became wealthy when he and moved to Denver, where he ran an import business and was a leader in the Chinese community. His descendants still live here.

Adolph Coors

The founder of Coors Brewing Co., he His son, William Coors, is credited with developing recyclable aluminum cans.

Eric Cornell

Cornell, a physicist at the Boulder-based National Institute of Standards and Technology, was among the winners of the 2001 His team was the first to achieve the first pure Bose-Einstein condensate, a new form of matter predicted by Albert Einstein that makes the study of quantum physics less difficult.

Lillian Covillo/Freidann Parker

The Denver natives began a ballet school in 1951 that grew into Colorado Ballet.

Dana Crawford

Crawford is widely seen as a visionary for her ability to grasp the value of Denver’s historic architecture and preserve it. Her signature project was Larimer Square, which she saved despite city leaders who saw her as blocking progress and hurdles thrown up by bankers.

Bill Daniels

A pioneer in cable television, he founded Daniels & Associates, setting the stage for  Denver to become the industry’s capital. His estate created the

Jack Dempsey

The “Manassa Mauler” became a legend fighting in front of record-breaking crowds. He became the world heavyweight champion in 1919.

John Denver

Born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., he settled in Aspen and for his music and his activism. “Rocky Mountain High” is one of the state’s two official songs.

James Dobson

He founded the Colorado Springs-based conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was a major force in pushing conservative Christian ideals in mainstream American politics in the 1980s.

Jean Dubofsky

While a lawyer in the Legal Aid Society of metro Denver beginning in 1972, she contributed to 34 new laws, including one that got banks to issue . She was the first woman appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court and was the lead attorney in the 1996 challenge overturning .

Steve Ells

Ells is the founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill, which the noted pioneered a fast-food restaurant “serving fresh, whole, unprocessed ingredients cooked in an open kitchen.”

John Elway

The nine-time Pro Bowler and former NFL MVP led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl championship, winning back-to-back titles, completing a Hall of Fame career defined by breathtaking fourth-quarter comeback victories.

Elizabeth Piper Ensley

She was one of only a few Black women working for women’s suffrage and was key in persuading Black men to vote for women’s suffrage.

John Evans

cannot be separated from the Sand Creek Massacre, which led to him losing his federally appointed position in the years before Colorado became a state. He also founded Denver Seminary, now the University of Denver. He was instrumental in securing the land and money for the Union Pacific line from Cheyenne to Denver.

Mount Evans, named for disgraced Colorado territorial governor, officially has a new name

Curt Fentress

Founder of Fentress Architects in Denver, Fentress was the , as well as the Colorado Convention Center, the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Washington, D.C., and Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

Barry Fey

The concert promoter is credited with for musical acts, starting in 1967. Fey also started the “Summer of Stars” concert series at Red Rocks in 1976 that boosted the venue's national reputation.

John Fielder

The nature photographer highlighted the beauty of Colorado. He produced more than 40 books, and one of his photographs will be featured on a postage stamp for the state's 150th birthday.

Donald Fletcher

The 19th-century real estate developer (now called Aurora) in 1890.

Jay Fetcher

The Routt County rancher to preserve agricultural lands.

Justina Ford

In 1902, Ford became the first licensed Black female doctor in Colorado, but the Colorado Medical Society would not accept her. She took her practice door to door, delivering 7,000 babies over 50 years. Her home now houses the Black American West Museum.

Tim Foster

Foster Transitioned Mesa State College to Colorado Mesa University during his 17-year tenure as president. Before moving back home to Grand Junction, he served in the state House and was majority leader.

Nate Gart

Nate started selling newspapers to help support his family and finally saved $500 to buy a store. Gart Brothers Sporting Goods was formed in 1928.

Charles Gates Sr.

Gates arrived in Tincup in 1904 to work in the gold mines. He left for a few years and, when he returned, used his life savings of $700, plus borrowed money, to buy the They replaced leather with rubber and created The Gates Rubber Company in 1918.

Dick Gibson

Founder of the Fort Collins company that , Gibson ran an annual jazz party over Labor Day weekend in Colorado for 30 years, starting in 1963, “,” according to The New York Times.

Tim Gill

Gill, a University of Colorado graduate, made millions off his software company Quark, but his legacy will be the Gill Foundation, which for more than 25 years has fought in Colorado and across the nation for LGBTQ rights. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

William Gilpin

Gilpin was the and raised the troops to protect the area from a Confederate invasion. He developed a theory called Isothermal Axis and used it to envision Denver as an important international hub.

Allen Ginsberg

The poet, along with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, was a  in the 1950s and '60s. Ginsberg founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute (now University) in Boulder, home to the Allen Ginsberg Library.

Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales

Gonzales was a civil rights leader and founder of the Crusade for Justice. His efforts, as his Denver Post obituary noted, "energized Denver’s Chicano community, paving the way for Hispanics to seek a greater role in civic and political life."

Temple Grandin

Grandin has used around the world. She is autistic and speaks on that subject as well as animal behavior. She has taught at Colorado State University for 30 years.

Emily Griffith

A teacher and administrator, Griffith saw the need for a school for adults to learn useful skills. She raised the money, and her dream became Her 1947 murder remains unsolved.

Frederic C. Hamilton

The philanthropist and masterworks from his private collection upon DAM, creating one of the best collections in the Western United States.

Zipporah Parks Hammond

The first Black person to earn a nursing degree from the University of Colorado School of Nursing, her later work at the Tuskegee Institute helped establish treatment protocols for polio patients. Back home, she indexed materials about Denver’s Five Points community.

John Harold

In a region known for its corn, John Harold is the farmer most associated with the Olathe Sweet, his trademark brand. Harold founded Tuxedo Corn in 1986, and his produce was soon shipped across the country to Kroger stores. He helped to launch the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival.

Gary Hart

His presidential run was famously derailed when he was caught in an affair. After that, the former Colorado senator became involved in international law and business, serving as co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century.

Todd Helton

The Hall of Famer spent 17 years with the Colorado Rockies, becoming the face of the franchise. He teamed up with Undue Medical Debt to erase $10 million of medical debt faced by Coloradans.

John Hickenlooper

Colorado’s current U.S. senator first made his mark with the Wynkoop Brewery in lower downtown, his restaurant investments and finally as the mayor of Denver. Hickenlooper worked to revitalize downtown before serving eight years as governor.

Bob Howsam

He was the founder of the Denver Bears minor-league baseball team, builder of Bears Stadium (later the original Mile High Stadium) and , in 1959.

Margaret and Phillip Isely

In 1995, they launched one of the first grocery store chains in America that would only stock natural and organic products. Vitamin Cottage, today called Natural Grocers, has 170 stores in 21 states.

Oliver Toussaint Jackson

A few buildings are all that's left of Dearfield, ounded by Jackson in 1910. The community's crops sold well during World War I, but the Dust Bowl caused the residents to move away in search of work. The town in Weld County is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Frances Wisebart Jacobs

What is now National Jewish Hospital or the work she did to establish it to treat tuberculosis patients.

Jennifer Jasinski

She was the first Denver chef to win a  in 2013.

Jonathan Kennedy

Kennedy had three deaf children. When he moved to Colorado, he convinced the territorial Legislature to begin a school for deaf children that is now the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind.

Billy Kidd

Kidd was the first American to ever win an Olympic medal in Alpine skiing, taking silver in the slalom at the 1964 Winter Olympics. Kidd then spent the next 50 years heading the skiing programs at Steamboat Springs, helping to create the next generation of Alpine athletes.

Josef Korbel

Korbel was founder and first dean of the . The master’s program at DU’s Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs is world-renowned. He was the father of Madeleine Albright and mentor to Condoleezza Rice.

Luther and Charles Kountze

Luther expanded the family banking business to Colorado, where he was joined by his brother. The bank became Colorado National Bank.

Jerry Krantz

Longtime owner of downtown, whose slogan “Hot Burritos and Cool Jazz Nightly” drew the coolest cats in Denver for decades. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the Marsalis brothers played there, and Bill Clinton visited. Krantz is in the Colorao Music Hall of Fame.

Dottie Lamm

Colorado’s most active first lady used her platform from 1975 to 1987 to advocate for women’s rights and then had a weekly column in The Denver Post. She was a delegate to the United Nations in 1994 and 1995.

Richard Lamm

Colorado's longest-serving governor led the opposition to from coming here, in part because of the environmental damage the Games might cause. He was a strong supporter of immigration restrictions.

Mary Lathrop

She graduated from the University of Denver Law School in 1896 and became the first woman to open a law practice in Colorado.

Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey

He established the and was known for his advocacy for the rights of women and workers.

Mary Elitch Long

What became o provide fruit and vegetables. That became Elitch’s Zoological Gardens, and, after she was widowed in 1891, Long continued work at the gardens, which offered entertainment. In 1897, she formed the country’s first summer stock company.

John Love

Love, a Republican, served as governor for 10 years starting in 1963. He sought to draw more businesses to the state. Among the key legislation while he was governor: State support for education increased, abortion was legalized, and the Sunshine Law opened government meetings to the public.

Henry Lowenstein

Holocaust survivor Lowenstein at the Bonfils Theatre in Denver. He designed and produced more than 400 plays through 1986. “Henry would have to be considered one of the 10 most important people in shaping this city,” said DCPA founder Donald Seawell.

Carrie Ann Lucas

Lucas, an activist attorney, won countless victories for Coloradans with disabilities, increasing parental rights and access to private businesses, public spaces and transit. She used the courtroom and civil disobedience to fight for federal Medicaid funding.

Joseph Machebeuf

Colorado's pioneer bishop arrived when there were two adobe churches in Colorado and Utah. His accomplishments included founding a convent for Sisters of Loretto, being the visionary behind St. Joseph's Hospital, and bringing College of the Sacred Heart, now Regis University, to Colorado.

John Malone

The New York Times described Malone as the of those who have transformed the modern media industry. The chairman emeritus of Liberty Media is also the second-largest private landowner in the United States.

Bill McCartney

The University of Colorado football team won its first national title under McCartney. He is remembered for the culture he created, featured in an ESPN documentary, “The Gospel According to Mac.”

Hattie McDaniel

McDaniel's career was marked by a series of firsts, including becoming the first African-American to win an Oscar, which she received for her role as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind." Segregation laws prevented her from attending the movie's premiere.

Bill McNichols Jr.

McNichols was Denver's mayor for 14 years, a time when the city began its transformation into the metropolis it is today. He was defeated by Federico Peña, in large part because of the city's inadequate response to the 1982 Christmas Eve blizzard.

Otto Mears

Mears built more than in the southern and southwest Colorado. He helped establish Saguache and the routes that became the basis for much of the region’s highway system, including the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton.

Ellis Meredith

She was the leader of and, according to a 1910 newspaper headline, the first woman elected to office in Denver. After Colorado gave women the right to vote in 1893, Meredith became a national leader in the movement.

Joyce Meskis

The pioneering bookstore owner and fierce First Amendment advocate built Denver’s Tattered Cover into one of the nation’s most beloved literary institutions.

Glenn Miller

The Fort Morgan High School graduate recorded the first gold record: "Chattanooga Choo Choo." His music came to

Enos Mills

Mills homesteaded the area around Longs Peak and led the fight to preserve the area as a national park. Congress established Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915.

Larry Mizel

Mizel founded M.D.C. Holdings, parent company of Richmond American Homes. His philanthropy is far-reaching. He founded the Mizel Institute, which includes the Mizel Museum and the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (CELL).

David Moffat

Moffat was the visionary behind the tunnel through the Continental Divide that now bears his name.

The Monfort family

In 1930, Warren Monfort founded a Greeley feedlot, and his son Kenneth Monfort revolutionized the industry with butchering facilities in the 1950s. Warren’s grandsons, Dick and Charlie Monfort, are principal owners of the Colorado Rockies.

Isaac E. Moore Jr.

He co-founded the law firm Flanigan & Moore and served in the state House in the 1950s and ’60s, co-sponsoring “some of the strongest civil rights laws in the country at the time,” according to the at the University of Colorado.

Lt. Col. John Mosley

After graduating from Manual High School, Mosley became one of nine Black students enrolled at Colorado State University. He was the first Black athlete on the CSU football team. Mosley then pushed during World War II to enlist as a fighter pilot, eventually joining the Tuskegee flight training center.

Rachel B. Noel

The granddaughter of a slave, Noel became the first in Colorado when she was elected to the Denver School Board in 1965. The Noel Resolution highlighted the de facto segregation of the Denver schools.

George Norlin

He served as the University of Colorado president from 1919-1939, during which time the current campus was developed.

Sue O’Brien

O’Brien was the editorial page editor at The Denver Post for eight years until her death in 2003. Dean Singleton called her the “conscience of Colorado.” She was a press secretary for Gov. Dick Lamm and ran Gov. Roy Romer’s first campaign for governor.

Chief Ouray and Chipeta

The U.S. government declared him He negotiated the treaties that led to the loss of Ute territory. He was considered a promoter of peace who fought to prevent the destruction of his people by a U.S. government intent on taking their land at any cost.

William Jackson Palmer

The founder of Colorado Springs. He came to Colorado, where he co-founded the  running a narrow-gauge line from Denver to what became Colorado Springs.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

The creative partners are best known for writing "The Book of Mormon" and "South Park." " for its use of satire to explore some of the biggest issues of our time. The duo also bought and restored Colorado's famous Casa Bonita restaurant, saving it from closure.

Federico Peña

Peña Boulevard is named for this two-term mayor, who began work on Denver's new airport. He also played a role in Peña went on to serve in the Clinton administration as both secretary of transportation and energy.

Spencer Penrose

Penrose was a who was active in the Colorado Springs region, financing the Broadmoor Hotel and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and establishing the El Pomar Foundation.

Antoinette Perry

The are named for this Denver native, who first performed at Elitch Theater. Among her greatest successes was directing the play "Harvey," written by Coloradan Mary Chase.

The Rev. James Peters

Peters led the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver for nearly 30 years. He marched with Martin Luther King Junior in Selma, Ala., in 1965, and spent much of his life fighting for Civil Rights in Colorado, including pushing for reform at the Denver Sheriff’s Office.

Gerald Phipps

The founder of GH Phipps Construction (in 1952) bought the Denver Broncos in 1965 and with his brother, Allan, took the team to its first AFC Championship. He was the first non-player to be inducted into the , in 1985.

Bishop George Maxwell Randall

The Episcopalian missionary established the School of Mines, known then as the Territorial School of Mines in 1873. It became Colorado's first public institution of higher education.

Bruce Randolph

Daddy Bruce, as he was known, quit school after third grade. He worked odd jobs until figuring out how to make his love of barbecue successful in Denver, where he had moved to be near his son. , marked by his legendary Thanksgiving dinner for those in need.

Condoleezza Rice

The former U.S. secretary of state moved to Colorado in 1968, when her father took a job at the University of Denver. She attended St. Mary's Academy and earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Denver. George W. Bush appointed her secretary of state. She is now part of the Denver Broncos' ownership.

Clark Richert

An artist known for his brilliantly colored paintings of geometric shapes, he was a groundbreaking creative force who helped inspire thousands of artists as a teacher at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. He helped found Drop City, the legendary hippy artist colony outside Trinidad.

Dan Ritchie

Ritchie's business acumen, steady leadership and knack for philanthropy righted the rough seas for a number of Denver's most iconic organizations, including the University of Denver and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Walter Orr Roberts

Roberts moved to Colorado in 1940, and his early solar research labs drew scientific investment to Boulder for the High Altitude Observatory and eventually the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Cleo Parker Robinson

The dancer grew up in Five Points, transforming the neighborhood's historic Shorter AME Church into the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance studio, which has brought the healing power of dance, music and art to thousands of children across the state.

William Green Russell

Russell and his party of Georgians established, in November 1858, the first significant white settlement where Cherry Creek and the South Platte come together.  They called their new town Auraria.

Florence Sabin

The Central City native led an investigation i helping lay the groundwork for a cure. Upon her retirement, she returned to Colorado, where she helped educate health professionals about the disease. She is immortalized with a statue at the U.S. Capitol.

Ken Salazar

The fifth-generation Coloradan served in the U.S. Senate and was secretary of the interior under President Barack Obama,  As the state’s attorney general (1999 to 2004), he established the Fugitive Prosecutions Unit. He was a visionary behind Great Outdoors Colorado.

Katherine “Kay” Schomp

The longtime Denver education and arts activist was known as the "founding mother" of the Denver School of the Arts, which she crusaded to establish.

Don Seawell

The former publisher of The Denver Post left his greatest legacy as the visionary behind the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

Pat Schroeder

The congresswoman from Denver helped define the role women have in politics. She was an advocate of family-work issues, famously saying, “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both” when asked about being a congresswoman and a mother. She was a force behind the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Family Leave Act.

Peter Seibert

After he was injured in World War II, Seibert headed to Aspen as the head of the ski patrol. His career developed, and he set out to find the land to Seibert raised the money needed and became president of the Vail Corporation.

Frank Shorter

Two-time Olympic medalist Frank Shorter moved to Boulder in 1970 to pursue high-elevation training for marathons. After Shorter’s gold medal win in the Montreal Olympics, athletes flocked to Boulder to mimic his training. He is the co-founder of the Bolder Boulder 10k.

John Sie

The Entertainment Group, Sie wrote the first white paper on digital High Definition Television (HDTV) submitted to Congress and the FCC. The Anna and John J. Sie Foundation supports multiple causes, notably research for people with Down syndrome.

Dean Singleton

Denver Post readers can thank for The Post existing today. The founder of Media News Group is credited with winning the newspaper war with The Rocky Mountain News and securing The Post's future.

Silas Soule

Soule was a Union officer, and he and his company refused to fire a shot at the Sand Creek Massacre. Shortly after he testified against Maj. John Chivington, he was shot and killed in Denver.

Robert Speer

Speer was elected mayor of Denver three times, starting in 1904. He died during his third term. He is remembered for the that brought Denver its network of parks, tree-lined boulevards and public buildings.

Jack Swigert

The Denver native and University of Colorado football star on the moon flight Apollo XIII. He made the famous statement, “Houston, we have a problem here” when an oxyen tank exploded.

Horace and Baby Doe Tabor

Horace Tabor's Leadville silver mines made him a rich man, and . But he and his second wife, Baby Doe, were also lavish spenders, and she died in poverty.

Harry Talbott

Palisade peach farmer Harry Talbott helped . He started land trusts for the area and fought off a home development scheme during the oil shale boom that soon went bust.

Hunter S. Thompson

where the journalist becomes central to the story, spent decades living in Woody Creek. He wrote "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Dalton Trumbo

This once cub reporter for The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction published his first book, “Eclipse,” in 1935, which was . Trumbo was forced to testify before Congress during the Red Scare. He became a fierce defender of the First Amendment.

Brian Vicente and Mason Tvert

The two were the big, leading to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado.

Wellington Webb

The mayor from 1991-2003, Webb played a major role in shaping Denver’s economic future. Most of Denver International Airport was finished under his watch. Downtown experienced a revitalization with new housing and restaurants. His efforts supported the opening of Coors Field. He was the city's first Black mayor.

Byron "Whizzer" White

The first University of Colorado football player to be named an All-American, White went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice. He wrote the opinion

Beatrice Willard

Willard was a tundra ecologist who did important work high in Rocky Mountain National Park, understanding the impact of human trampling on alpine tundra.

Judi and Marvin Wolf

Philanthropists who gave their time and money to the arts and the University of Colorado, supporting the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Colorado, the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Art Museum and the CU law school.

Pierre Wolfe

Chef and in Capitol Hill, which was ranked among the best restaurants in Denver for more than 30 years. He also opened Normandy French Restaurant and Tante Louise. He hosted a for 60 years, “America’s Dining and Travel Guide.”

Richens Lacy “Uncle Dick” Wootton

The frontiersman built a 27-mile toll road over Raton Pass. According to “The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway offered him $50,000 to buy the road in 1878. He turned them down. Instead, Wootton asked that the railroad give his wife groceries and a pass to ride the train for life.”

Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias

The Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Half Century in 1950. She competed in multiple sports and helped break down stereotypes of women in professional sports. She was a founder of the LPGA.

He is either a full-blown savior or embarrassingly overrated.

His slow heartbeat in the clutch reminds some of John Elway.

The comebacks are required, critics bark, because his play in the first three quarters is reminiscent of Tim Tebow.

In two seasons, Nix has ended an eight-year playoff drought, won 24 games and collected Denver’s first AFC West title since Peyton Manning’s final season. He has also delivered some performances — at the Jets as a rookie, against the Raiders, Chiefs and Chargers last season — that made it impossible for ����apountry to live, laugh and love even in victories.

Nobody can explain it. It’s something, ain’t it?

The Broncos finally secure a franchise quarterback, and Nix morphs into a polarizing figure. The players ranked him 59th in the NFL Top 100, ahead of Lamar Jackson. And a few days ago, Garrett Podell of CBS Sports labeled him as one of the most overrated quarterbacks.

As Nix enters season three, it is time to find out the truth.

It has required screaming matches, growing pains, a new receiver and playcaller, but we are finally going to see the best of Nix.

His days as a polarizing figure are over.

Nix splits opinions because of his inconsistency within games. He is the equivalent of a pitcher who walks the bases loaded in the first inning then shows off no-hit stuff over a game’s final nine outs.

It doesn’t always make sense, beyond the obvious mechanical issues of happy feet, left shoulder flying open and nerves.

Coach Sean Payton told ESPN writer Seth Wickersham last January that he “avoids calling shallow crossing routes the first few drives because Nix might throw the ball high and hard, leading to a tipped pass and interception.”

To be fair, Nix has played his best when things are a mess. Street ball, as Payton reluctantly calls it. He hated it with Russell Wilson, but has grown more tolerant with Nix because he limits turnovers and dramatically reduces sacks.

Now, the moment has arrived to prove it. Time to show he can use the shorter verbiage customized by Davis Webb, the new offensive coordinator, and a simplified running game to reach his potential.

Here is his chance to improve against zone coverage and gain his rhythm on deep strikes. With the addition of Jaylen Waddle, there are no more excuses.

Nix has a top-five wide receiver tandem. His security blanket, Courtland Sutton. And his new Hot Wheel in Waddle.

Let’s talk like adults and cut to the chase. The Broncos’ season hinges on how the Payton-Webb-Nix dynamic works.

Payton has turned Nix into a solid player. But the coach’s indecisiveness choosing plays and Shakespearean sonnet-length calls became problematic. It was holding Denver back offensively, leading Payton to lean heavily on a frothing defense and Nix’s fourth-quarter theatrics.

It was deemed unsustainable. So, Webb gets his chance, starting Wednesday when the Broncos practice for the first time in training camp. You will never convince me Payton made this decision willingly, though if doing so helped him land a three-year contract extension, those dots are a lot easier to connect.

Payton wants it to work because his legacy remains at stake. Get to a Super Bowl — I don’t think winning it is required — and he will get elected to the Hall of Fame.

Webb needs it to work to land a head coaching job. Showing he can operate with bullets flying is the last merit badge to earn after he nearly landed the top spots in Buffalo and Las Vegas over the winter.

Everyone knows the Broncos must start faster and become more efficient on early downs. An upgraded running game with a simplified blocking scheme is required.

Then the rest is up to Nix. And the irony is rich.

Can Nix and Webb run the offense that made Payton famous?

“(Payton) doesn’t want an offense that stresses the defense horizontally. Knowing Sean, he wants to throw the ball down the field. Drew (Brees) was throwing that thing,” said former linebacker Manti Te’o on NFL Network, his recall based on playing for Payton for three seasons in New Orleans. “Bo Nix needs to throw down the field. It starts and ends with Nix.”

This remains at the crux of Nix’s development. It’s a question that, if answered positively, will make him a top 15 quarterback, one capable of winning a Super Bowl.

The issue has never been trusting Nix to pass. His 612 attempts last season led the league. It is the length of the throws and their location.

The Broncos threw the sixth-most passes behind the line of scrimmage. The safeties and linebacker did not respect the deep game, turning the middle of the field into a ghost town.

And when Nix let it eat, he was not great.

In passes of 15-plus air yards, Nix posted a 36.7 completion percentage, slotting 24th in the league. His passer rating (79.8) was 21st. And six of his 11 interceptions came in these situations.

With Waddle in tow, these numbers must spike. He addresses this specific need. He caught 21 passes on vertical/deep routes — second best in the league — despite the struggles of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Waddle can take the top off the defense and close the lid on games.

Every time Nix connects with Waddle deep, consider it a victory over opinion, a win for his reputation.

Nix does not obsess over critics, with right tackle Mike McGlinchey calling it one of his “superpowers.” But he will silence them if he dials in on intermediate routes and shock plays.

Nix has earned respect in the locker room for his work ethic and relentless competitiveness.

Outside of it, in non-Colorado area codes, he has fostered suspicion about his future because of multiple ankle injuries and surgeries, even though he has only missed one NFL start.

The one-score wins and Nix’s health have led sportsbooks to make the Broncos underdogs in five of their first six games, while predicting them to finish third in the AFC West.

“They are probably waiting to see Bo,” linebacker Nik Bonitto told The Post. “Well, just wait till they see him.”

It is time to remove the gray area with Nix. His ceiling will tell the truth.

“Very nice,” he said, giving me a wry, knowing smile and a short laugh.

Some background is definitely required here.

In 2014, Weiss was managing the Rockies on a hazy, humid September Sunday morning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Somehow, Weiss, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding, and I started talking about our 1970s crushes. We mentioned, of course, Farrah Fawcett and her famous poster, Cheryl Tiegs and her poster, as well as other supermodels and Hollywood stars. I said I once had a poster of pop singer Linda Ronstadt.

Then came the bombshell.

“I had a crush on Barbara Streisand,” Thomas said. “I thought she was hot.”

Walt and I were aghast. As Walt pointed out, “Babs” had a nose like his own. No way Thomas was telling us the truth, right? To this day, insists he was.

The kicker came after the Rockies lost to the Cardinals that day. Walt pulled us aside and said, “You know, when I was going out to the mound to make a pitching change, I kept thinking about Barbra Streisand. Thanks a lot, Thomas.”

The point of my ramble down memory lane? My nearly 28-year career at The Denver Post ends Wednesday when the Rockies host the Red Sox at Coors Field. I’ve covered World Series, Super Bowls, Final Fours, Nuggets games and scores of high school state championships alongside Kyle Newman. In the end, my fondest memories are not about games, highlight reels, strategy, upsets, or scoops. My fondest memories are about people. It’s what I wrote about best.

Being a baseball beat writer is the most gratifying of any of the major sports beats, in my humble opinion. You get to know the people, from owners and managers to players and clubbies to broadcasters and fellow writers. Meanwhile, the walls between the NFL and the media grow thicker and taller with each passing year. I can’t imagine Broncos beat writers talking about their boyhood crushes with coach Sean Payton.

I was hired by The Post in October 1998, joining Adam Schefter as a Broncos No. 2 beat writer, just in time to cover John Elway’s second Super Bowl title. In the summer of 2005, I was yanked off the Broncos beat and moved to the Rockies, as the No. 2 writer behind current Post columnist Troy Renck. It was a demotion for me, no doubt.

My wife, Nancy, and I were shocked by the grind of the baseball beat, especially back in the days when The Post still traveled to cover the Rockies. We eventually embraced the lifestyle, though it wasn’t easy.

Covering a team afflicted with chronic losing wasn’t easy either. I covered the Rockies for nearly 20 years, and during that time, they had five winning seasons, made the playoffs four times, and made one magical run to the World Series in 2007.

I’ve had to rewrite more deadline game stories than I can count. The adage in the Coors Field press box: “The Rockies blew another lead. And they blew another lede.”

But, all in all, it’s been quite a wonderful ride. What follows are excerpts from some of my favorite stories I wrote for The Post. The common theme is people.

McCaffrey family legacy

When I started covering the Broncos, first for the Longmont Times-Call and then with The Post, training camp was still held at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. The players stayed in one dorm, the media in another, and we shared the same cafeteria. Access to the players was incredible. I once interviewed Elway while riding in a golf cart as the fans screamed for autographs — Elway’s, not mine.

That’s how I got to know wide receiver Ed McCaffrey and his wife, Lisa. In 1999, I profiled their family’s rich sports legacy:

When 5-year-old Max McCaffrey plays soccer, his 3-year-old brother, Christian, can’t bear to watch.

“Christian is always trying to run out on the field to be with his big brother,” his dad said. “We have to keep reeling him back in.”

Christian can’t help it. The need for speed, the energy driving his little motor, the desire to follow the bouncing ball — they’re in his genes.

His grandfather won a silver medal in the 100-meter dash at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Uncle Billy became a legend in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt and later won a national basketball championship with the Duke Blue Devils.

When she was a pixie in South Florida, Christian’s mom scored so many goals for her high school soccer team that her mug shot ended up in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd.”

Christian’s dad? All he’s done is win three Super Bowl rings, earn a trip to the Pro Bowl, develop a stiff-arm that could stop a rhinoceros, become one of the best receivers in Denver Broncos history and destroy forever the notion that white men can’t run.

Arenado’s SoCal roots

In 2016, Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado was a budding star. I traveled to his boyhood home of Lake Forest, in Orange County, California. While the Rockies hosted the Blue Jays at Coors Field, I sat in the living room of Fernando and Millie Arenado as they watched the game on TV. It was a remarkable day, topped off with a trip to El Toro High School, less than 10 minutes from the Arenado home. I spent an hour reminiscing with Mike Gonzalez, Arenado’s high school coach.

Here’s the beginning of my story about Arenado’s baseball roots:

LAKE FOREST, Calif. — The trim, stucco home looks like many others in this quiet, middle-class Southern California neighborhood. There is a basketball hoop out front and a beautifully tiled swimming pool in the backyard.

Step inside and you’re enveloped by warmth. Family photos cover every wall, every shelf, every nook and cranny. The family dog, a white Havanese named Mojito (“Mo” for short), hops up on the comfy couch to greet visitors.

Baseball is everywhere, too. Indeed, the home is something of an impromptu museum. Near the TV in the living room sits Nolan Arenado’s gleaming 2015 Silver Slugger Award. Open a nearby cabinet, and one of Arenado’s three Gold Glove Awards sits among a sea of memorabilia.

Likely more baseball stuff will be added after Tuesday night����ap All-Star Game in San Diego, where Arenado, the Rockies’ third baseman, will be appearing, the second year in a row he was voted in by fellow major-league players. Who knows? Perhaps an All-Star Game MVP trophy will be his newest baseball heirloom. At the very least, his All-Star Game jersey will find a place in the Arenado home.

Upstairs is the “Bonus Room,” as the family calls it. In the middle sits a pool table, now overflowing with framed photos, jerseys and signed baseballs. On the couch in front of a big-screen TV sits a Star Wars stormtrooper helmet. Back in the day, Arenado wore it while playing video games.

A day in the life of Buddy Black

I covered five managers in my time with the Rockies: Clint Hurdle, a force of nature and philosophy; Loquacious Jim Tracy, one of the nicest men I’ve ever met; Weiss, a fellow Bruce Springsteen fanatic; Bud Black, a walking baseball encyclopedia who’s beloved throughout the game; and current manager Warren Schaeffer, full of incredible passion and heart.

Of all of the Rockies’ managers, I know Black the best. We’re near the same age and share the same sense of humor. We still text frequently. In 2018, in the midst of a race for the National League West title, Black allowed me to go behind the scenes and chronicle a day in the life of a big-league manager:

It����ap the second week of September, the Rockies are chasing their first division title, and Bud Black has former Bronco Peyton Manning on his mind.

He’s trying to figure out a way to get the legendary quarterback to appear in a video that would play on the giant scoreboard at Coors Field as the Rockies make their run to a possible National League West crown.

“I want Peyton, waving his arms up and down, to get the crowd going,” Black says. “Hey, we don’t care about the snap count! We want it loud! ‘Omaha! Omaha!’ ”

Later in the afternoon, he’ll call in Julian Valentin, the director of social media, to see if there has been any progress on Project Peyton. (Valentin tells Black that it����ap being looked into).

Black’s office, down the hallway from the players’ spacious clubhouse, contains a comfy black-leather couch and a tidy desk. Photographs of Coors Field adorn the walls, including one that captures the joy of a young boy watching a game. Encased in a glass frame is the lineup and a baseball from Black’s first game as Rockies manager. It����ap dated April 3, 2017, a game in which the Rockies beat the Brewers at Milwaukee, 7-5.

Black has plenty on his to-do list, though he goes about his chores with a relaxed, easy manner. Colorado’s second-year manager, age 61, plans to watch video, meet with his coaches, chat with some players and confer with head trainer Keith Dugger. The night before, the Rockies hammered the Diamondbacks, 13-2. With nothing to stew over and no second-guesses haunting him, he got an excellent night����ap sleep. Today, he’s open to having a reporter shadow him, from arriving at the ballpark just after noon through another critical game that night vs. Arizona.

Helton gets the call

Todd Helton is the greatest player in Rockies history. He’s a complex, moody, smart and extremely funny man. His sense of humor can be cutting and takes some getting used to. Somehow, we bonded.

In January 2024, Helton invited Thomas and me to his home outside Knoxville, Tenn., to be there with his family and close friends when he got the call that he’d been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We all figured he’d get in, but there were no guarantees. It turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my career:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Todd Helton, arms folded across his chest, nervously paced the living room of his home Tuesday afternoon.

“I haven’t been superstitious for 10 years, not since I retired,” the Rockies’ iconic first baseman said. “Today, I’m superstitious. I didn’t look at anything, I didn’t watch anything, I didn’t look at the internet.”

He could have spared himself the angst.

Because, fittingly, at 5:17 p.m. Eastern time, No. 17 got the call of a lifetime. Told that he had been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Helton pumped his fist and finally took a deep breath.

“It����ap the greatest honor you can get as a baseball player,” Helton said. “Getting your number retired and getting elected to the Hall of Fame are the two greatest achievements you can get.”

Still, Helton wasn’t quite ready to let it all go.

“I’m going to go (crazy) when y’all leave,” he said.

The sweet-swinging Helton, the beloved heart and soul of the Rockies for 17 seasons and one of the most accomplished players of his era, received 79.7% of the vote, clearing the 75% bar required by the Hall of Fame and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Matzek, ‘The Yips,’ and me

We’ve all got something. Mine is anxiety and depression, something I’ve dealt with for much of my adult life.

That’s why I was so interested in Tyler Matzek’s story. The former Rockies pitcher had such a bad case of the yips, brought on by performance anxiety, that it nearly ruined his baseball career. In December 2015, we met in a Southern California coffee shop and talked for nearly three hours. He was remarkably candid.

In 2021, he won a World Series as a shutdown reliever for the Braves. But before that, I wrote this story:

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. — On Sept. 5, 2014, at Coors Field, Tyler Matzek pitched a three-hit shutout against the San Diego Padres. Poised and confident, and throwing a 94 mph fastball with graceful ease, the Rockies’ rookie left-hander was dominant. Over his final six starts, Matzek went 4-2 with a 1.55 ERA. He looked like the Rockies’ ace of the future.

Yet demons lurked in the corners of Matzek’s mind, and by the time he took the mound for the Rockies’ 2015 home opener April 10, he was headed for trouble.

“Even when things were going the right way, there was this overwhelming stress inside me that just kept building and building and building,” Matzek said recently while sipping coffee at a Starbucks in Southern California. “(Then) I just couldn’t hold that stress any longer and my game collapsed.”

Matzek was suffering from performance anxiety.

It wrecked him on the mound and even began to creep into his everyday life.

“My wife, Lauren, said it was our worst time, relationship-wise, because I was so tight, so stressed, just waiting to explode from this thing,” Matzek said. “She knew it wasn’t about her, but it was hard.”

But the quiet, intelligent 25-year-old confronted his condition head-on, confident he would fulfill the promise that prompted the Rockies to make him the 11th pick in the first round of the 2009 draft. He is determined to compete for a job in the Rockies’ starting rotation in spring training.

Thanks, mom

The day after I cover my final Rockies game, Nancy and I are flying to Southern California. We’ll join my extended family to scatter the ashes of my mom, Anita, and my dad, Dusty, in Laguna Beach, their favorite vacation spot.

This is my final chance to say thanks, sharing past stories with you:

Somewhere up there, my mom is smiling.

Ryan McMahon hit a home run for the Rockies in their 4-3 win over the Giants on Thursday night. McMahon broke out of a horrendous slump.

“RyMac” was my mom’s second-favorite Rockie, right behind Todd Helton. Why? Partly because he’s Irish, mostly because I like RyMac.

She was thrilled when Helton invited me to his Knoxville, Tenn., home to witness his Hall of Fame phone call in January 2024. When my wife, Nancy, and I were invited to Helton’s party in Cooperstown last July, my mom felt like she was there.

During her last years, I watched Rockies road games with her when I could. She rarely asked why the team was winning or losing. Strategy was not her thing. She always asked, “Is so and so a good guy?”

That����ap the kind of sports fan my mom was. She knew nothing about OPS, yards after catch, 3-point percentages, or point spreads. She just liked how players played and hoped they were good people. She loved Dr. J, Nolan Arenado and Floyd Little.

In the Broncos’ infancy, when Little was their only star and the game plan was “Little off left tackle, Little off right tackle,” my mom would shout, “Don’t hurt Floyd!”

In her later years, she’d tried to stay up late enough to watch manager Bud Black’s postgame news conference, not because she wanted to hear his explanations but to hear me ask a question.

Thanks, dad

I wrote this journal a few months before my dad died in May 2022:

What do you get your dad for his 90th birthday?

I’ve been pondering that question for the past few weeks. I kept striking out.

Then, as I perused the web, I came across a cool T-shirt. Cardinals red, the shirt displays the image of Stan Musial, leaning on a baseball bat. The script simply reads: The MAN.

How many sports-related T-shirts, sweatshirts and books have I given my dad over the years? I’ve lost track. It doesn’t matter. My dad’s going to love his “Stan the Man” T-shirt.

A father and son bonding over sports is not unique, but it is different for every father and son.

Walter Patrick “Dusty” Saunders was born on Sept. 24, 1931, in Denver. He was a lonely kid. His father died when he was 9 years old, and his mom died when he was 10.

In the 1940s, my dad’s companions were the radio, books and sports. He became a St. Louis Cardinals fan because he could pick up the strong signal from KMOX radio in St. Louis. Musial was his favorite player.

In 2006, my first full year on the Rockies beat, I took my dad to St. Louis for Father’s Day to watch the Rockies play the Cardinals in the first year of the new Busch Stadium. He chatted with Clint Hurdle and Todd Helton. After the game, my dad, MLB.com Rockies beat writer Thomas Harding and I had dinner at former Cardinal Mike Shannon’s restaurant. Thomas and I still talk about that day.

Only 11 quarterbacks have thrown for more touchdowns. Only 13 QBs have averaged a better yards per pass attempt in their careers. Only 14 other players have completed more passes. Only 15 other signal-callers have thrown for more yards.

He tossed 353 TDs over his career. His touchdown-to-pick ratio was 3.1-to-1. He averaged 29 passing scores, nine interceptions, and 10 wins per season. He’s the only QB in NFL annals to amass both 40,000 passing yards and 5,000 rushing yards in the same career. He was 121-80-1 as a starter. He won a Super Bowl and was a horrible goal-line call away from winning a second.

If you take the name off the back of the jersey, and just look at the stats, that’s a Hall-of-Fame career, isn’t it? Those are the kind of career numbers you’d hope Bo Nix would aspire to. 

Alas, that resume comes with a name. And a reputation. And a pile of pure cheeseball high enough to climb Mount Elbert.

The subject of Russell Wilson — his career, his legacy — is, no shock, a bit of a mixed bag within the Grading The Week offices. But when we were forced to reckon with No. 3 one more time after he announced a few days ago his was transitioning from the NFL to an analyst job at CBS Sports, the football wonks decided on the following:

Despite a miserable two seasons in Denver that were the beginning of the end of a good career, it was, on the whole, a very good career. A Hall-of-Fame career. The GTW crew is cool with Russ getting his ticket punched to Canton one day. Just don’t force us to have to listen to his induction speech. Please.

Russell Wilson in Canton — B

When the Broncos sold the farm to acquire Wilson from Seattle in 2022, the idea was that, at age 33, Big Russ had enough juice left from a pretty glorious Seahawks decade to author the kind of dreamy coda Peyton Manning authored at Dove Valley a decade earlier.

Instead, what unfolded was a chain of nightmares. Wilson was a step or two slower than the guy who won rings with the Legion of Boom, and that step or two proved immense for a guy who loved to hang onto the ball too long. With Wilson’s quick-twitch fading, the sack count piled up. He never saw a throw in the middle of the field he liked, largely because he never looked in the middle of the field to begin with. Pairing that with a first-time, pleasant, but in-over-his-head head coach in Nathaniel Hackett turned into dark comedy, with fans at Empower Field having to count the play clock down, out loud, back at Russ to get him to get the ball snapped in time.

The pre-snap operations were far cleaner with Sean Payton in charge, but Wilson’s decision-making and sack-taking drove his notoriously fickle coach up a wall. Payton and Wilson were too set in their ways to co-exist. The Broncos chose to eat $85 million in dead-cap penalties just to flush Wilson out of their system — but cold turkey, in hindsight, proved to be the perfect dish. Without Russ crashing so quickly, so spectacularly, the Broncos wouldn’t have had to turn to Nix, nor revamp the locker room with so many young players all at once.

Denver launched Wilson’s NFL death spiral, but don’t let that entirely discount the 10 seasons that preceded it — Seattle Russ was 104-53-1 as a starter in the Northwest, made it to nine Pro Bowls, and led the Seahawks on eight playoff runs. Only eight other QBs have ever led more game-winning drives over a career than Wilson’s 40, which is the same career comeback number as John Elway’s. The more you forget about what Russ did in orange and blue, the better. For everybody.

Russell Wilson on TV — D

That said, the GTW kids would be pleasantly surprised if the notoriously pleasant, bland, inoffensive Russ is anything but terrible television.

Oh, he’ll look good. Dang good. He’ll be cool as heck. But one of the central tenets of an analyst position is sharing an actual, from-the-heart opinion, the occasional hot take. For DangeRuss, that might be too hot to handle.

“On the outside looking in, I would have him on a (reps) restriction,” Warren Moon, the Hall-of-Fame quarterback, told me over the phone Monday when I asked about Bo Nix, the Broncos’ QB1.

“I think (the Broncos) should put him on some type of pitch count, like you would put a quarterback on a pitch count if he had problems with his shoulder.

“You put him in, limit his (reps), and you see how he’s handling it in practice. It’s something they’re going to have to monitor as they go along and see how much (this month) he can take and how much he shouldn’t take.”

The Broncos open Organized Team Activities this week, ramping up to a mandatory mini-camp June 16-18. Nix, who’s coming off January ankle surgery, followed by another procedure in April, is expected to do more watching than throwing this month.

Which, to Moon’s ears, isn’t just safe. It’s smart. The former great who played six seasons in Canada before a 17-year NFL career with the Oilers, Vikings, Seahawks and Chiefs once tried to rush back from a bum right ankle himself. Fall of 1996.

“The quick movements that you have to make in the pocket, you just aren’t able to make as quickly,” Moon recalled. “I tried to practice with it as much as I could. They tried to give it time to heal … I probably should have given it a lot more time.”

Moon had sprained his right ankle against Detroit in Week 1, then sat out a week. In hindsight, he told me, it should’ve been longer. Warren fought like holy heck to play through the pain. Even though he couldn’t plant. Couldn’t cut. Couldn’t move. If you’re Warren Moon, you can fake it as an NFL signal-caller on one good leg. Until the pocket collapses.

“When I got that ankle sprain, it made me feel like I was The Mummy, like I was Frankenstein’s monster,” the 69-year-old chuckled. “I couldn’t move at all. I just didn’t have the mobility, just didn’t have the lightness on my feet to do the things that I was comfortable doing.”

Moon sat out Week 2, then made six straight starts before the ankle got dinged again during a home loss to Chicago on Oct. 28. With one working ankle, Warren tossed six scores with seven picks, completing 56.6% of his throws. In ’94 and ’95 with the Vikings, Moon had averaged seven tilts per season of at least 275 passing yards. After the ankle mess, he managed just two such games for Minnesota in ’96 over eight appearances — a freak injury that, in hindsight,

“When you were trying to move in the pocket to avoid somebody, I just didn’t have the same quick-twitch ability as I did when my ankle was healthy,” Moon offered.

“And then when you look at someone like Bo Nix, someone who relies on his mobility — if it’s not completely healed, it’s going to definitely hamper his mobility. Which is one of his strengths.”

Moon is a Nix fan, by the way. Says he even reminds him of somebody Warren used to run into during those business trips to Denver those many moons ago.

“(Nix) has a little bit of John Elway in him, in the way he moves,” Moon said. “His arm’s probably not as strong as John’s. John was one of those guys who could bring his team back at the end of a game. That’s one of the things Bo has done a good job of …

“Then there’s the movement, of course, (Nix) being able to move around and make plays with his legs. He would be similar that way, in those aspects of his game.”

Like Elway, those aspects are hard to replicate — and even harder to replace, as Steady Stiddy reminded us against the Patriots in the AFC Championship.

“(The Broncos) do a lot of things because of Bo’s mobility,” Moon said of Nix. “They do a lot of rollouts, a lot of bootlegs, a lot of play-action to take advantage of his throwing ability on the run. And you want to make sure he’s able to do things where Sean Payton can still run the type of offense (that) he still wants to run. I’m sure that’s something they’ll be looking at at (during) the OTAs.”

When it comes to ankle recoveries, Moon added, it’s also about looking at the long view. Any rep Nix can manage on the field during June is found money. The points on the calendar that matter more are the start of training camp in late July and sometime around the second preseason game against the Packers on Aug. 21. Anything before that is gravy.

“The main thing is that (Nix) is there physically, as the leader of the football team,” Moon continued. “That he’s going to be in the meetings, for the (instruction) that he needs to digest, that the team sees that he’s doing things.

“The fact that he’s there (at OTAs), that’s huge. It’s not an Aaron Rodgers deal where you don’t know if he’s going to show up or not, where the team is wondering, ‘Is he going to be our leader?’ They know, ‘Hey, our QB1 is here.’ (The Broncos) seeing that he’s doing what he can on the field, that confidence bleeds over to the rest of the football team, too.”

Want Bo in the flow?

Low and slow is the way to go.

“I really like what they’ve done in a short period of time. The future looks great for them,” Moon stressed. “And the kid from Miami (Jaylen Waddle) they got in the offseason — I know Sean is going to come up with a lot of ideas as to how to use him. They’re going to be right there in the thick of things at the end of the regular season. Just like they were last year.”

With deep regret, we note that the season for negative televised political campaigns is back in action.

We, viewers and voters, are subjected to very ugly photographs and rhetoric. The ads from the Democratic Party’s two major candidates for Colorado governor, for example, are so brutal that they might lead us to two kinds of conclusions. One is that the stinging rhetoric will leave lasting images in our minds, even following the inauguration. We will ask ourselves if the winning candidate can be trusted. The other question is about the creators of this kind of material. Are they trustworthy? Are the candidates themselves responsible? “Why,” we might ask, “would any candidate allow this kind of destructive brutality to be aired on their behalf?”

What might an average citizen do to eliminate this toxicity and to insist on a higher, respectful level of political discussion? Perhaps each of us could call the campaign offices and register an official protest. As we communicate our deep displeasure, we can model respectful behavior in our phone calls.

Peter Hulac, Denver

Don’t cry for Colorado sports fans

Re: “Nix’s ankle. MacKinnon’s knee. Are Denver sports cursed?” May 26 sports commentary

Hey, Sean Keeler,

Kiss every bruise, interspersing my whooped behind. As a tortured Minnesota professional sports fan, I must say, questioning whether Colorado teams are cursed is equivalent to an Aspen billionaire spitting out a slightly stale serving of Caspian caviar over the hood of his trust-fund Porsche.

After reading your recent diatribe likening Bo Nix’s ankle, Cale Makar’s shoulder and Nathan MacKinnon’s knee to a Billy Goat-esque jinx, my fingers almost fell off from playing the world’s smallest violin for hours on end.

You speak as though the Centennial State hasn’t been fed professional championships via silver spoon for decades. John Elway and Terrell Davis did it twice. Peyton Manning added another. Nikola Jokić and Murray secured an NBA ring in 2023. The Colorado Avalanche have three Stanley Cups.

Try growing up 15 minutes away from the Minneapolis Metrodome. No matter how hard I scrub, the putrid stink of institutionalized loss follows me to every barstool. Norm Green kidnaps our former hockey team to Texas, a place where ice is exclusively used to chill Lone Stars. Gary Anderson misses a Super-Bowl-berth field goal. Kevin Garnett loses to Kobe Bryant, leaves Minnesota, wins a ring with Boston. Big Papi loses to David Eckstein, leaves Minnesota, wins a ring with Boston. Brett Favre, Anthony Edwards, Kirill Kaprizov, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Professional Colorado teams are nowhere near cursed. Nix will heal. MacKinnon will heal. My derrière, however, will not.

Just ask Buffalo. They know what I’m talking about.

Ray K. Erku

Colorado sportsnation turns its lonely eyes to you, Rockies

2026 is proving to be the worst of times in Mile High sportsland! The Broncos faltered in the snow, the Nuggets floundered on the hardwood, and now the Avalanche fail on ice. It leaves all our hopes and prayers residing on the bottom-feeding Rockies.

Looking grim, folks, and the year’s not half over.

Harry Puncec, Lakewood

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And still, he returned for a Broncos curtain call, on Monday, in the building where he helped lay the current foundation.

Ten years to the day that the Broncos drafted him in 2016, the 32-year-old Simmons announced the end of his playing days on Wednesday morning through a video announcement on the Broncos’ account. After a one-year stint with the Falcons and a year-long absence from football, Simmons also signed a ceremonial deal to retire with the Broncos.

Simmons welled up several times in a 30-minute-long press conference later Wednesday afternoon in Dove Valley, thanking a seemingly never-ending slew of backers: wife Taryn for supporting him, Broncos executive John Elway for drafting him, general manager George Paton for extending him, and the Denver fanbase for sticking with him.

“It just felt like there was a lot asked, and I feel like I fell short,” Simmons said, on his eight-year career in Denver. “So, that’s why — a lot of the emotional aspect of it. And so, I felt like I let a lot of people down over the years.”

“And so, to see that type of reaction for me is more than I deserve,” he continued, on the response to his retirement. “It’s heartwarming. I’m thankful. I’m blessed, I’m honored.”

The heartbeat of the Broncos’ defense

For eight seasons after Elway took him with the final pick of the third round in 2016, Simmons led the Broncos’ secondary, defense and locker room at large. His 30 interceptions are tied for seventh all-time in Denver franchise history. And he lives in rooms he’s never touched — still flashing across the tape that Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker shows players, a deep-safety model for the defense that the former Broncos secondary coach wants to install in Dallas.

Parker has a simpler lasting memory of his years with Simmons, though.

By Jan. 8, 2021, the Vic Fangio era as the Broncos’ head coach was over. The locker room, Parker remembered, had a “feeling” about that, heading into a Week 18 matchup with the Chiefs. For a fifth straight season in Denver, they had nothing to play for. Simmons’ safety partner, Kareem Jackson, was hurt. Future Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II was hurt. Ronald Darby, the other starting corner, was hurt.

And yet Simmons trotted out to play like everything was on the line.

“He was still scratching,” Parker said, remembering. “He was clawing, out there.”

One’s football legacy is strange, Simmons said. His is no exception. He was a two-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro, and tied for seventh all-time in Broncos history in interceptions. He showed up, as Parker pointed out, playing 118 of a possible 131 games in Denver. He also had one season with a winning record but never made the playoffs.

It ate at him, as Simmons said. He told reporters on Wednesday that he believed each passing year would be the year. Behind the scenes, he had “a lot of talks” with Parker about a burning desire to simply make the postseason, as the Dallas defensive coordinator recounted.

“That����ap really all he wanted to do, to be honest with you,” Parker said. “I think if you asked if he would trade some of those career accolades relative to the interceptions and All-Pro nominees, and all that kinda stuff — to have that taste of January and February football, he would trade it in a heartbeat.”

That never came, and the Broncos cut Simmons for his price tag while rebuilding under Payton after the 2023 season. He signed in Atlanta in 2024 to try and chase a playoff berth — but found it “miserable,” as he said, to be away from his wife and FaceTime-parenting his three children, who were still living in Denver.

Simmons continued to train throughout the 2025 season but never signed with a franchise. The time he regained with family, though, was invaluable, as he recounted. Eventually, he found peace in realizing that it was “just time” to move away from his playing days, he said.

The safety had always wanted to retire a Bronco, even after being cut, Parker said. And the two years away from Denver helped Simmons find peace, too, with a tenure that lacked wins but had a much greater effect on the orbit around him.

“My overall goal was to leave here, and continue the legacy and to be a Hall of Fame player,” Simmons said. “Obviously, I fell short of that, I think. Not I think — I know I fell short of that.

“I think what I’m the most proud of, though, is the adversity that popped up in those eight seasons … it����ap hard to get recognized as a player when your team is not doing well,” Simmons continued. “It����ap a very difficult thing. So I’m proud of the way I was able to fight through some adversity in that aspect. It����ap hard when you have a lot going on. It helped me, though. It����ap part of my journey and my career. I’m thankful for it.”

Simmons has been a bridge between eras in Denver. He was drafted in 2016, the year after the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 win. His time ended in 2023, the year before the Broncos returned to the playoffs. Denver went 52-79 in Simmons’ eight seasons, and saw six different coaches don a headset, and pivoted through a massive ownership change from the late Pat Bowlen to the Walton-Penner Group.

Still, Simmons became a “legend in his own way,” as former teammate Melvin Gordon told The Post. He organized Thursday bowling sessions and dinners with the defensive backs, and took care of the youngsters, Gordon said. Simmons was named a three-time captain and remained consistently accountable to local media during losing seasons. His impact ripples through foundational pieces still on the Broncos’ roster — Garett Bolles, Courtland Sutton, Surtain and Alex Singleton.

Gordon, a former Pro Bowler who played for the Broncos for three seasons, is quick to admit he fell into a bad place in Denver by his final year. He fumbled five times in 2022 and said he began to lose his “love for the game.”

Simmons, Gordon said, helped keep that passion burning through simple words and simple locker-room games of UNO.

“Sometimes, you do need a leader to show you the way,” Gordon said. “And I think he made his mark that way.”

The safety made his mark in the community, too, serving as an active mentor at the Broncos Boys and Girls Club. And after retirement, Simmons said he intends to try to wedge a foot into the broadcasting world — and explore a potential position at a local high school program, similar to Cherry Creek High head coach Dave Logan.

“I want to be the guy in the community that����ap a consistent, reliable figure for kids to look up to,” Simmons said.

And he hopes he left a legacy, as he said Wednesday, of a man who cared.

“I passionately cared,” Simmons said. “I wanted to do well. I really wanted to win. Didn’t work out. And I’m so glad that they’re winning now.”